The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-07-03
M. JULES VERNE AT HOME
How the Famous French Novelist BE-
can to Write Stories of Adventure.
Influence of Other Writers on His work
How He Came to Write His Novel North
and South"-A Tale of the Civil War.
Written for the sunday Journal.

Northern railway to Boulogne and Calais not
f,rsber from Paris than is Philadelphia from
New York. 1t is its misfortune. Amiens is
charming; it has narrow streets through winch
eleven branches of the river Somme run, AZ
the canals of Venice quantity fashioned houses
cpyered with tiles; wide boulevards that are
wSll shaded; citadel that was built oy
Henri " and Vaubap; cathedral Oh
the thirteenth century that Vioiet-le-Dnc
is authority for esteeming the oeival church par
excellence" and than which there is not nooier
example of what Michelet aptly terms sculp-
tured prayer The good suisse who unfolds the
mysteries of that theological encyclopedia to the
visitor is q dungeon of artistic lore. and he Ia
ments the fact that the rapid trains from Paris,
in this age of progress carry passengers 10 "a
lais without break at Amiens.
This good suisse Ia suisse is equivalent to
sextonl had the good fortune to meet, in 1850, an
enthusiastic visitor a Monsieur Rosquine-none
other than the incompatible Ruskin. afterward
discovered-who gave him set phrases, phoneti-
cally written in French for his use in addressing
English speaking persons / copied one of them
from his valuable well Fingered note book, that
he guards as zealously as the ever-burning light
in the altar. It reads thusly:
''Plize tou spike solicit"
Ollendorf could not have done better.
Under the shadow of that great monument to
piety, Gresset, the author Of Vert Vert" am
sorry to say, was born, and NJ Goblet, present
Chief Minister, who may have to yield to pres
sure of bad company, and attempt to break the
Concordat with Rome, was a distinguished law
yer, but Peter the Hermit, the promoter of the
first crusade, was born at Amiens; so was
voiture, the great letter-writer, and it is the
home of Jules Verne.
I had been running over the leaves of diary
that Edmond and Jules de Goncourt. lovers OF
art in every form. had kept of their thoughts
and impressions, and my eyes had fallen upon
entry made July 16. 1856.
after reading Poe, the revelation of some
thing that critics do not appear to have
found. Poe, a new literature. the litera-
ture of the twentieth century, the miracu-
lous scientific; imagination by dint of
analysis; the making of fabulous tales
by A. and B., literature at once mon
omaniac and scientific Zadie. judge; Cyraro
de Bergerac. a pupil of Arago. And things.
taking better part than beings; and love- love
lessened in Balzae's work by money-love yield
ing its place to other wells of interest," the novel
of the future to tell the story of things that
in the brain rather than in the heart Of human
ity."
1 wondered what Jules Verne, whose first
novel appeared in 1862, would think of that, and
went to Amiens.
His residence is large handsome mansion,
surrounded by well-kept grounds, in the avenue
Charles du Bots, avenue that commences at
the Boulevard du MAIL which was an exterior
rampant of the old town, and has become the
dividing line between old and Amiens,
even as Canal street-that is not wider than
the Boulevard du Mail-in New Orleans, lis the
dividing line between the New Orleans of the
colonist, Mr. Cables New Orleans, and the New
Orleans of to-day.
Jules Verne, who is Partisan to his fingers
ends, lives at Amens because his wifes raia-
tives Amiens people 1t his custom to
ego to Paris once a month for day two, until
q year ago, when he wounded by a pistol
shot in the left leg. He lmps, cannot bend his
leg, and is deprived OF other exercise than driv-
ing. The nephew, his brothers son, who fired
the shot, his favorite. No reason could be
found for his insanity.
Jules Verne was born at Nantes. in 1928; to
be precise, February 8. He wears lightly his
ffty-nine years of life. His hair and beard are
white but his face is young unfurrowed, and
there is expression of frankness in it, and in
heart Being a Breton, he was born with
profound admiration for the sea; at twelve he
had read Robinson Crusoe. and had begun to
think of writing stories of shipwrecks
He studied law, WAS graduated az the law
school, went into the Stock Exchange. not as one
of the venerable institution created by ordi-
in it but not of it, like the gulf stream in the
ocean.
1t had flashed through his mind that he might
go to California and seek for a gold mine and
find it, and then devote himself to literature;
but he was writing constantly, the Gymnase
playhouse found something accept in his
mass of manuscripts 1t was comedy in verse.
in act, LES Pailles Rompues." and it had
been written with Alexandra Dumas fills q CO.
laborer. Dumas 10 his friend Mark this, for
Dumas is not pI ,digal of his friendship and is
n - WI knfGf hore
have heard him say of Jules Verne that il he
were q foreigner there would be nothing too
good for him in France. jules Verne says that
he has been fortunate in the friendship of
Dumas and of an editor. Hetzel. (P. j. Stahl in
literaturej, who coached him, kept him in line
prevented his making excursions in tho domain
of BalZac. ever since the day that his first novel
Five W eeks in Balloon" ("Cnq Semaines en-
BalIon"), made him able to live by his PEN
That was in 1862. Since then he has written
fifty volumes-two every year.
q Had he caught his inspiration from Edgar Poe
whose influence. in the vivid TRANSACTIONS of
Baudelaire, has been great on French men-of-
lettersa Were the Impressions of the brothers
de Goncourt in 1856 similar to his own2 Mr. Verne
said yes. that he owed much to Edgar Poe and
much to Fenimore Cooper. of whom he is an ar
dent admirer.
His object was to write books that the young
could read with profit. He had no pretensions
to being savant. man of science He read
incessantiy. Whenever he was in doubt he
went to one who knew. Joseph Bertrand Of the
institute had been his adviser on many occasions
He would make errors, perhaps but not verv
grave ones. / asked him if his stories were not
worked backward. like Gobelin tapestry He
said that he never commenced to write a stor.
without knowing how it was going to end.
He writes the plot, then studies the de-
tails. The results of his studies are in
notes of one word in columns, on sheets of
paper. letter size. These words refer to books
in his library to other notes of ideas or facts
When he has become familiar with his notes he
writes the story. His manuscript is remarkably
neat, on the left side of 1etter-size page leav-
the dates! They give me more trouble than YOU
can imagine. AND the names His proof read
ing costs good deal of money to the editor he
says He sends the original manuscript TO the
printer without an erasure and there are eight
successive proofs to be corrected by him. He is
fastidious in the extreme with regard to his style: